Nintendo tests DSi text-to-speech in Japanese classrooms

Nintendo and NTT are testing a voice recognition project in Japanese schoolrooms that would help hearing impaired students in their schooling. In these test classrooms, speech from a teacher is captured into an electronic blackboard, converted to text, and then uploaded to the cloud for for use on mobile devices like Nintendo's DSi. NHK says that this gives students a record of lessons, and opens up opportunities for games that would use the captured text. This technology is now being used in tests in deaf schools in Tottori and Okinawa.

The plan for this program is to get it working in schools, and then take it into deaf homes.

You can see a video on how this technology works in an embedded video at NHK News.